After coming off my best meet performance of my career, I am now officially a beat up powerlifter. I'm having some minor low back issues that I'm working on mending up, and then I'll begin to find a competitive option. My goals for 2017 are to compete in a bodybuilding show and also get back to the platform 100% healthy.

For programming and coaching inquires, please email SmitleyPerformanceSystems@gmail.com or visit brandonsmitley.com

Thursday I got my squat/deadlift work in at Elitefts while I was in town for the Arnold. It wasn't a bad day, and overall things felt really good. I did find out that I was still sitting into my right hip a little bit, and was still working on correcting that, but otherwise the squat still felt rather decent. There is still a lot to go, but it's progress nonetheless. The hook grip work is also feeling really good. I was fortunate to run into Janaie Kroc and Justin Harris, as well as a few other Elitefts teammates that were there training that evening. I'll cover a bit more of the Arnold stuff in some of the coming logs as the weekend transpired. But it was definitely cool to catch up with teammates I hadn't seen in quite some time!


Items Used in this Training Session
Texas Deadlift Bar

Warm Up
PRI Breathing Work - 5 min
Hip Flexor Stretch - 30 sec per leg
Leg Swings (forward and side to side) - 10 each
Single Leg RDL - 10 per leg
Bulgarian Split Squat - 10 per leg
Goblet Squat - 10
Standing Band Crunch - 15

A1) Squat
240x5x10

B1) Sumo Deadlift
245x5x10

C1) Belt Squat
Up to a top set of 15, then one massive drop set at the end

D1) Wtd GHR (Elevated)
3x10

E1) Single Leg Reverse Hyper
3x15 per leg

F1) Seated Cable Crunch
4x12